Little Country House on the Lake

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

I can't believe that it has almost been a whole month since I last posted and even longer than that for an actual written one. Now there has been a very good reason why I haven't written - I haven't been feeling all that chipper and finally ended up in the ER last Monday night. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, I can be a bit stubborn and figure I can handle just about anything on my own.) Anyway, after four different medications, I am on the mend and feeling much better. This past weekend, while resting in my easy chair, I decided to clean up some stuff on my computer. After all, that doesn't take that much ability to sit and click on a few keys while sitting with your feet up - LOL!I found that in the last couple of years I had bookmarked about two hundred different blogs and websites. Really, two hundred!!!! Anyway, there is no way I could read and stay up to date with two hundred different sites. I also found that there were only a few that I really read, commented on, and stayed up to date on. I also knew that my computer was just a little slow - you think? - so, I decided it was time to get rid of the stuff that was just taking up precious space on my laptop!Saturday I just sat in my chair, clicked on each one - and deleted the ones I knew I didn't read anymore and then on ones I wasn't sure about, I read the last couple of posts and if it wasn't something that interested me - "delete" was clicked on. I don't want to tell anyone to desert someone's blog, especially since I would love for you to read mine, but there comes a time that you have to chose which blogs are interesting to you.Now, before I got really sick, I had done a lot of organizing around the house cleaning out closets, drawers, and cabinets. Of course, being the lame blogger that I am, I didn't take any pictures of the before - but I can sure show you pictures of the after and tell you how I got there. So, if you are interested - my next couple of posts will be talking about organizing spaces. See you later this week!!!Hugs -Carol

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

When we bought our house I was so excited we had a pantry. We didn’t have one in the rental house and trying to find a space in the little, bitty, tiny kitchen was always a challenge. We even put up shelves in the garage for all our canned goods. It was not the ideal situation, so when we looked at this house, and there was a pantry, I was a happy camper.

Then we moved into the house and my “perfect” pantry became a royal mess. The shelves were so deep that things got lost – I couldn’t tell what I had. Things were in front of other things and we were always having to move one thing to get to another.

So, I knew I had to do something to make my “perfect” pantry –

well,

Perfect.

The first thing I did was ask the hubs to put another shelf in at the very top – there was at least two feet of unused space at the top of the pantry. We found a piece of shelving at a garage sale (for .25) that was just a little narrower than all the other shelves. I figured that it would make it easier to get things down due to the door.

The next thing I did was ask him to install two shelves at an angle.

What???

Say that again???

See, I had seen this picture on Pinterest (yep, Pinterest again) that showed two pantry shelves flipped upside down and canned goods placed on them. I thought that would be a great solution to the “lost” cans problem.

Photo curtsey of imgur.com

So, one day last week the hubs finally decided to complete his part of the pantry redo and installed the two shelves at an angle for me. Then I went in and did the organizing part.

Want to see how it turned out?

First thing I did was move all my clear storage containers with my rice, beans, pasta, etc. to that new top shelf.

They are all labeled and since that shelf is smaller it is easy to see what I have.

Then I took three Dollar Store baskets and put them on the second shelf. One has Cookies and Crackers, one is for bread, and the third holds our Chips. I just wrote on an index card, then punched a hole and tied the card on with some ribbon. Easy, peasy. Even the hubs can find what he wants, which is usually either the cookies or the chips!

Here are my awesome angled shelves! Aren’t they the BEST!!! They make it sooooo easy to find just what canned good I want AND stuff doesn’t get lost! I just LOVE them! Oh, one more thing about these angled shelves – they don’t take up any more room then just one shelf did.

On the next shelf I placed a small rectangular basket upside down so I could get the boxed goods up so I could see them. No more hiding from me!

Then I took another Dollar Store basket and put all my Jell-O and pudding mixes – I still need to label that basket.

And finally, I had a small pencil basket that I put all the mixes in.

The next shelf down I put all the breakfast stuff – cereal, oatmeal, grits, pancake mix, coffee, and peanut butter (yep, peanut butter is a breakfast food around our home). Okay, yes, I have a box of pop-tarts. My hubs likes them – don’t judge.

The last shelf holds all the miscellaneous stuff and duplicates. Then on the floor I have some bins for produce. I have added a couple more since this picture was taken for my white potatoes and baking potatoes along with the one with the onions.

Guess I need to label those bins also.

So, I took a pantry that was a disaster -

and made a nice organized pantry where things can be found with no trouble at all.

About Me

Hi, I'm Carol - welcome to Little Country House on the Lake! I'm a wife, the mother of two grown daughters, the grandmother of two precious girls, and a follower of Christ! I love to do projects that make our "little country house" our home all on a budget. If I must, I'll even do some cooking! I hope that you'll stay and take a look around.